James Pfeiffer: A Holy Man and His Efforts to Preserve the Faith

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: Brett Bridgman

 

 

 

 

 

Submitted to Dr. Spade

May 2, 2003

History Seminar 493

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On February 21, 1889, a determined priest by the name of James Pfeiffer (also known as Jacob Pfeiffer) boarded the “Wieland” steamer of the Hamburg-American Steamer Line at Hoboken, New Jersey on a spiritual journey to visit Catholic holy sites throughout Europe and the Middle East.¹  While some of the more affluent traveled for secular reasons such as sightseeing or health, and others traveled by sea with the military, Pfeiffer was a man of faith and hoped to retrace the footsteps of saints and disciples that had walked the land before him.  Pfeiffer knew the history of the land that he was traveling and often recited parts of the Bible or gave detailed background accounts about the sites that he visited.  His comments and observations are documented in his travel diary, The First American Catholic Pilgrimage to Palestine, 1889.

            Little information could be found about Reverend Pfeiffer at some of the main centers for Catholic research.  Oddly enough, there was no information to be had on him at either the Catholic University of America or the American Catholic Historical Society.  Luckily, however the Archives at the University of Notre Dame proved to be quite the gold mine when researching Pfeiffer; it was there that biographical information, pertaining to him was unearthed. 

Pfeiffer was born in Hafroschen, Bavaria in Germany on November 24, 1852, and came to the United States in 1867 at the age of fifteen.²  He studied at St. Meinrad and also at the St. Joseph Seminary in Indianapolis and was ordained by Bishop St. Palais in May of 1877.  On August 10 of this year, Pfeiffer was sent to St. Joseph’s Church in Jennings County, Indiana where he was reverend for almost seven years.  On May 12, 1882, he was transferred to Enochsburg, Indiana and remained for seventeen years, enjoying the longest pastorate in the history of his respective parish.  In the latter part of 1883 and most of 1884, Pfeiffer was given charge of the St. Maurice Mission which had come to Enochsburg from Hamburg, Germany.³  The last baptismal record that can be found for Pfeiffer’s time in Enochsburg was dated February 19, 1899.  He then was sent to St. Wendel Parish, where he remained for thirty-seven years until his death on February 2, 1936.⁴  It was during his time at Enochsburg that Pfeiffer embarked on this devout journey.  His travel diary was published in 1892 by Jos. Berning & Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio and was the first and only edition printed.

            The organized journey began in the United States with Pfeiffer’s expedition leaving from New Jersey and traveling by steamer.  Their first stop came on March 2, 1889 at the port city of Cherbourg, France.  From here, the pilgrims traveled by train through Paris, Marseilles, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and other cities, taking time out to visit notable Catholic sites along the way.  From Europe, Pfeiffer’s tour group again traveled by steamship, this time to Egypt, where they visited the cities of Alexandria and Cairo and made numerous stops along the Nile River.  Pfeiffer and his colleagues left Africa from Port Said and landed in Jaffa of the Holy Land from where they later left to Ramleh by covered wagon.  They next came to Jerusalem, the pinnacle of their journey, where they stayed for slightly more than three weeks.  The trip continued through the Catholic holy cities of Bethlehem and Nazareth, through Beyrout, and eventually to Constantinople and Athens.  The trip’s final stretch concluded as Pfeiffer and the others made stops in Italy and Germany by train.  They covered Venice, Milan, Strasburg, Munich, and Hamburg, where they finally left to go back to New York again by steamship and landed on July 13, 1889.⁵ 

              Pfeiffer had come to the United States from Germany just prior to the immense immigration boom of the 1880s and 1890s.  As the immigrants came, industrialization was booming with new inventions being made by scientists like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.  With industrialization, came work, and more and more immigrants poured into the U.S. providing cheap labor.  Unfortunately, as more and more immigrants came to the U.S., jobs began to dwindle, creating an American backlash, toward the immigrants at the time.  This all culminated as the worst panic in American history came in 1893.  By 1894, one out of every five Americans was unemployed and a whopping 600 banks had closed.  These problems only strengthened isolationist arguments with regards to American foreign policy.

 Reverend Pfeiffer traveled to the Holy Land in 1889, four years prior to the economic panic.  His journey was made primarily for religious purposes.  Throughout the diary, he indicated his concern with passing his story on to future members of the Catholic faith.  He focuses on the significant historical places, giving descriptive accounts of each holy site and town that he visits.  One of his main interests while visiting the holy sites was the architecture and design used for the major houses of worship along the way. 

            This paper will focus on James Pfeiffer’s observations of his pilgrimage and his motives for writing his travel diary, and will briefly touch on some other American Catholic pilgrimages compared to that of Pfeiffer.  It is the thesis of this paper that Pfeiffer’s observations of the architecture of the holy sites on his journey sparked his interest in church building at his local parish.  Pfeiffer claims that his diary documented a truly notable event, the first American Catholic, group pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

            Prior to this group of American Catholics traveling to the Holy Land, European Catholic diaries were already popular reading for American Catholics.  Due to the poverty of immigrant American Catholics like Pfeiffer, few Catholics traveled to the Holy Land until some time after the Civil War.⁶  At this time the number of pilgrims increased dramatically as American tourism to the East continued to grow.⁷ 

            Pfeiffer was, in fact, convinced that he was traveling on the first American Catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land and even spoke of honorary medallions that each pilgrim was given before embarking on the journey.  These medallions had, on one side, the representation of the Crucifixion, and read “First American Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 1889,” and, on the other side, had the pilgrim’s name and the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary.  The medallions were blessed in Jerusalem and served as a memento for each pilgrim.⁸

            There were, however, references to American Catholic pilgrimages before Pfeiffer.  These pilgrimages were those of individual travelers and did, in fact, come before that of Pfeiffer.  Pfeiffer, however, was a part of the first American Catholic group pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 

These other Catholics had traveled through the Holy Land, but did so under different circumstances than Pfeiffer.  The earliest known reference to an American Catholic in the Holy Land is a report from the British consulate in Beirut.  The report states that a passport was issued to Rev. Samuel Cooper on his way to the Holy Land in 1824.  Timothy Bermingham, the vicar forane of the Diocese of Charlestown also traveled to the Holy Land.  He traveled to Rome in 1861 for health reasons.  While he was near the area, Bermingham, as an after thought, decided to take a short tour of the Holy Land.  Stanislas Buteux, a missionary from the Diocese of Natchez, also went to the Holy Land out of convenience.  He was visiting Paris, and while there, simply requested and was granted, a free ticket to the Holy Land.⁹  These examples were just a few of the more notable travel experiences of individual Catholics who traveled before Pfeiffer.  It has been noted that other American priests made side trips to the sacred land while visiting Europe on personal or church business.¹⁰

            The preface in Pfeiffer’s diary is key to understanding his reasoning and motives for travel.  At the very beginning, he refers to his journey as the first American Catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Pfeiffer also makes it quite clear that this occasion is important and that its history ought to be written about.¹¹  Since no American Catholics before him kept detailed descriptions of their journeys, he takes it upon himself to write the history of his journey.  Pfeiffer was writing to do more than just provide information about the sites that he visited and the history of his pilgrimage.  He was deeply concerned with preserving and promoting the Catholic faith on his journey and in the U.S.   

In writing his travel diary, Pfeiffer attempted to stimulate the faithful followers of the Catholic religion in the U.S.  He finds it important to observe each of the differing groups that can be found in the Holy Land. 

            He says in the preface,

These Holy Places which are dear to every true Christian, are still under the sway of Mohammedans, Turks, Schismatic Greeks, Armenians, and Copts.  If we would more fully realize this deplorable condition, we would and ought to contribute more to the collection for the rescue of the Holy Places, which is ordered by our Rt. Rev. Bishops on Good Friday.  It is this principally that induced me to write this book.  That Almighty God may move the minds and hearts of the reader, is the sincere wish of the author.¹²

 

By acknowledging the other faiths’ presence in the Holy Land, Pfeiffer is attempting to

encourage his fellow Catholics to become more involved with the sacred land and seems to almost promote a sense of competition for the Holy Land. At this time other Christian groups were rapidly acquiring land and building in the Holy Land.  To build here meant to win the struggle against Orientals, Protestants, and others for the Catholic faith.¹³

One woman traveling to Jerusalem (on a separate pilgrimage) agreed with Pfeiffer stating that “in visiting Jerusalem, most of us find out how deficient we are in biblical lore…  My meager knowledge of biblical lore was mortifying.”¹⁴  Because Americans felt behind the other cultures with regards to faith, most guide books and accounts published by American pilgrims to the Holy Land attempted to breathe new life into biblical narratives allowing the readers to resolve any doubt about their truth and authority.¹⁵ 

            Pfeiffer’s pilgrimage was funded by the Franciscan Commissariat of the Holy Land located in New York City, under the direction of one of Pfeiffer’s fellow pilgrims, Charles A. Vissani, O.F.M.  The commissariat’s job was to raise money for shrines, parishes, schools, orphanages, and other places in the Holy Land staffed by the Franciscans.¹⁶  To do this, Vissani founded a magazine originally called The Pilgrim of Palestine in 1885, but later retitled The Crusader’s Almanac in 1893.  The first issue of The Crusader’s Almanac announced a new spiritual crusade for the rescue of the Holy shrines of Palestine.  This came out shortly after the pilgrimage (1889).  It was certainly no coincidence.  Catholics contributing funds to the commissariat were enrolled in what was called the Army of the Holy Cross and contributed at least twenty-five cents a year to the projects of the commissariat.  The commissariat encouraged Catholics to enroll and gave out spiritual benefits in the form of plenary indulgences on Christmas, Easter, the believer’s hour of death, and a partial indulgence every Friday.

            The funds brought in by the Crusaders were used to fund new Catholic building projects.  A 100 room addition to the Casa Nova Hostel in Jerusalem, a new pilgrim house in Nazareth (“Our Lady of America”), and the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt. Thabor, were among their projects in the Holy Land.¹⁷  Pfeiffer recounts his experience at Mt. Thabor, saying that he and the other pilgrims were inspired by the enthusiasm of the apostles who had witnessed the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ here.  He recounts,

Our pilgrims on Mount Thabor were inspired and filled with enthusiasm… so much so that they spoke of subscribing money to build a church on Mount Thabor, in honor of the ‘First American Catholic Pilgrimage to Palestine,’ and actually a few hours later, a subscription list was drawn up, headed by Frank Headon with $500.00, others followed with $100.00, etc.  In some way or another, this matter was dropped again, as we, like the apostles, experienced harder times on our pilgrimage.¹⁸

 

            Projects were not only undertaken in the Holy Land, however.  There were, in fact, notable examples that took place in the U. S.  Vissani’s successor, Godfrey Schilling built the Monastery of Mount St. Sepulchre in Washington D. C. in 1899.  It was, in fact, very unique for the American style of architecture, with a Byzantine atmosphere and an exact replica of the Holy Sepulchre Church of Jerusalem inside.  There were also other chapels within the same building that reproduced Nazareth’s grotto of the Annunciation and the grotto of the Nativity (where Christ was born) in Bethlehem.  After the completion of this shrine, large groups began to form, annually making the trip to visit this holy site in place of the real, authentic sites across the Atlantic.¹⁹  Interestingly enough, it appears that this soon became a pilgrimage substitute for those lacking the time or the money to travel and visit the original sites. 

             Throughout the trip, Pfeiffer is constantly enamored with the architectural design of each site that he visits and gives detailed descriptions of the majority of them.  When in Rome, for instance, he gives a careful description of St. Peter’s which he declares is the “grandest church on Earth.”  He notes the great devotion that was put into building the structure, as it took 175 years to build, and if including work done under Pius VI, its creation spanned three and a half centuries.²⁰ 

            Pfeiffer went into much greater detail than that solely of admiration.  He focused on the dimensions of the church itself.  Pfeiffer was surely not doing this to entertain his future readers.  Instead, he is taking note of an exquisite site and getting ideas for future construction and renovation that he may undertake back at home.  His notes from the structure went like this: 

The dimensions of the church are as follows: length of the interior 613 ½ English feet, of transept from wall to wall 446 ½ feet; height of nave 152 ½ feet, of side aisles 47 feet; width of nave 77 to 89 feet, of side aisles 33 feet; circumference of pillars which support the Dome, 253 feet.  The cupola is 193 feet in diameter.  The height of the Dome from the pavement to the base of the lantern is 405 feet; to the top of the cross 448 feet…  The Dome is encircled and strengthened by six bands of iron.  A stairway leads to the roof, broad and easy enough to allow a loaded horse to ascend.  The annual cost of keeping the church in repair is 30,000 scudi, according to our money, $6,000.²¹

 

While visiting Athens, Pfeiffer reflected on the renovation of Greek sites that had been destroyed by the Persians.  In 448, vast building operations, spearheaded by Pericles, began on the acropolis.  Within ten years, he noted, the Parthenon and Propylaea were erected.²²  Pfeiffer was awestruck by these structures that had stood almost completely unharmed until the eighteenth century.  The construction of these structures was quite instrumental in motivating Pfeiffer and served as an example for him to look back on, when planning future improvements.

            Pfeiffer took great interest in the Propylaea.  This was the structure that the ancient Greeks referred to as the “gem of the Acropolis.”  He notes its arched entrance-gateway and two unequal wings.  He proclaims it to be “a masterpiece of inventive talent and perfect workmanship… superior even to the Parthenon itself.”²³

Pfeiffer even mentions how church structures can highlight entire cities. When visiting Cologne, Germany, he gives an account of the extravagant cathedral,

 highlighting its features and also mentions briefly how the project was funded.  This hints that Pfeiffer may have been interested in how past structures were funded and was searching for fundraising techniques for his own local activities. 

The pride of Cologne is that remarkable structure, the Cathedral.  This is the largest specimen of Gothic architecture in the world; it is 511 feet long, and 231 feet wide; its towers are also 511 feet high… Outside it has a double range of flying buttresses and intervening piers; it is a perfect forest of pinnacles.  The government contributed a large sum towards its completion; money was also raised by private subscription and by the “Dombuuverein” which had branches throughout Europe.²⁴

 

            When he returned to Indiana, Reverend Pfeiffer, began making improvements to his own parish.  During his seventeen years in Enochsburg, he removed old shingles (installing a slate roof), installed glass windows, ordered new pews, altars, and a new organ, and purchased twelve new statues.  During his pastorate, the church was also frescoed again, a slate roof was put on the rectory, and other general improvements were made to the property including new fences and stone walks.  Altogether, about $5,000 was spent on the property during Pfeiffer’s tenure.²⁵  Though the exact dates of these improvements are not available, one can speculate that a great deal of Pfeiffer’s ideas came from his pilgrimage in 1889. 

            Though Pfeiffer was writing his diary to document what he considered a noteworthy event, and for future construction purposes, he was also hoping to influence the reader into taking up the Catholic faith.  We know that Pfeiffer tried to convert followers, during the time that he spent at the St. Maurice Mission in Enochsburg.  This was another reason that his architectural improvements were so important.  He wanted new converts to feel at home when attending mass at his church.  As an anonymous convert to Catholicism recounts in his diary, A Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Threshold of the Catholic Church, “When I first entered a Catholic Church, I stood a moment bewildered.  It was unfamiliar and yet not unrecognizable.  I was not at home, but I did not feel a total stranger.  It was like meeting a forgotten friend of years long past whose features were only dimly recalled, so that it was impossible to say who he was or where last we met.”²⁶  He notes that after his first experience with the Catholic Church it became easier to return.  He also notes that, “Presently, I discovered that I began to feel at home in them all.  They seemed to be all the same.  They were not separated churches such as I had been used to attending from my youth.  And in each one I felt the same presence.”²⁷  This was truly what Pfeiffer was working toward. By making observations of the holy sites and bringing elements of them back to the U.S., he was promoting a sense of continuity in the Catholic parishes which provided a home-like atmosphere for converts like this.

            The anonymous convert also remarks that not only did he feel at home in each church, but he also noticed that “all classes mingle freely together.”  As a Protestant, he had been used to seeing the poor seated in the back, shy when entering and the first to leave when services had concluded.  But in the Catholic Church, class distinctions seemed to be forgotten and the poorer classes were quite at home.²⁸  After all, most of the Catholics at this time were indeed humble poor immigrants who had been raised on the faith in Europe. 

            Reverend Pfeiffer made his pilgrimage with a distinct purpose in mind.  First and foremost, he was traveling for his own deep religious convictions.  He acknowledged that his pilgrimage was the first made by an American Catholic group in history.  This was indeed a unique event, and Pfeiffer found it necessary to publish his findings for historical purposes.  He does, however, also want his readers to be influenced by his writings and drawn to the Catholic faith. 

            One cannot help but notice that while writing his diary, Pfeiffer had an agenda to follow.  At every city that he visits, he makes note of the holy sites and their architecture and decoration.  He was doing this in order to gather ideas for future construction and renovation to be brought back to holy places in the U.S., and he followed through, making improvements to his own church after returning to Indiana.  His passion for building and construction and the improvements that he made to his own church, combined with his writings while on pilgrimage provide a sincere effort to preserve and promote his beloved Catholic faith.  Reverend Pfeiffer was a visionary with faith who sought to enrich the Catholic religious experience through his architectural advancements and writings that he made as a member of “the first American Catholic Pilgrimage to Palestine.” 

                

             

Notes

 

       ¹James Pfeiffer, First American Catholic Pilgrimage to Palestine, 1889: (Cincinnati, Ohio: Jos. Berning & Co., 1892), 3.

       ²James Pfeiffer to Herman Joseph Alerding, (January 26, 1880), Diocese of Fort Wayne Collection, CDFW 2/01-02, Archives of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556., 1.

       ³Parish historical sketch for Bp. Alerding’s History of the Diocese of Vincennes.  Diocese of Fort Wayne Collection, CDFW 2/01-02, Archives of the University of Notre Dame, IN 46556., 32.

       ⁴Parish historical sketch, 33.

       ⁵Pfeiffer, 267.

       ⁶David Klatzker, American Christian Travelers to the Holy Land, 1821-1939  (Ph.D. diss., Temple University Graduate Board, August 1987), 224.

        ⁷Ibid., 225.

        ⁸Pfeiffer, 2.

        ⁹Klatzker, 225.

       ¹⁰Ibid., 225.

       ¹¹Pfeiffer, v.

       ¹²Ibid., vi-vii.

       ¹³Klatzker, 232.

       ¹⁴Yehoshua, Ben-Arieh and Moshe Davis, ed., Jerusalem in the Mind of the Western World.  (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997), 47.

       ¹⁵Ibid., 47.

       ¹⁶Klatzker, 229.

       ¹⁷Ibid., 230.

       ¹⁸Pfeiffer, 174-175.

       ¹⁹Klatzker, 231.

       ²⁰Pfeiffer, 31.

       ²¹Ibid., 32.

       ²²Ibid., 212.

       ²³Ibid., 213.

       ²⁴Ibid., 265.

       ²⁵Parish historical sketch, 32.

       ²⁶A Spiritual Pilgrimage Towards the Threshold of the Catholic Church  (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931), 209.

       ²⁷Ibid., 211.

       ²⁸Ibid., 213. 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

Works Cited

 

Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua and Moshe Davis, ed.  Jerusalem in the Mind of the Western World.  Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997.

 

The work gives an interesting account of an anonymous traveler and her desire to learn more about the bible and the Holy Land.  This was prevalent among numerous travelers who went to Jerusalem for secular reasons.

 

James Pfeiffer to Herman Joseph Alerding, (January 26, 1880), Diocese of Fort Wayne Collection, CDFW 2/01-02, Archives of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

 

This letter to the bishop provides biographical information, including where Pfeiffer studied and was appointed as a priest.

 

Klatzker, David.  American Christian Travelers to the Holy Land, 1821-1939.  Ph.D. diss., Temple University Graduate Board, August 1987.

 

The dissertation gives a detailed account of many early American Catholic pilgrimages to the Holy Land.  Particularly important are those that traveled for secular purposes.  Another important part is the idea of the preservation of the Catholic shrines in the Holy Land.

 

Parish historical sketch for Bp. Alerding’s History of the Diocese of Vincennes.  Diocese of Fort Wayne Collection, CDFW 2/01-02, Archives of the University of Notre Dame, IN 46556.

 

This sketch provides background information for the Reverend James Pfeiffer.  The sketch also speaks of the improvements that Pfeiffer made to his church.

 

Pfeiffer, James.  First American Catholic Pilgrimage to Palestine, 1889.  Cincinnati, Ohio: Jos. Berning & Co., 1892.

 

This is the primary source used for the paper.  It gives a detailed account of Reverend Pfeiffer’s observations at the holy sites that he visits.  It is also important that Pfeiffer is on the first American Catholic group pilgrimage to the Holy Land, because of this, this source attempts to review the history of the journey.

 

A Spiritual Pilgrimage Towards the Threshold of the Catholic Church.  London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931.

 

This source has a detailed section about a new convert to Catholicism and his observations of the atmosphere inside the church.